Take My Hand
by Lindo
Summary: "Two parts of space and time that should never have touched, pressed together." Eight snap-shots, 11/Amy.


_A/N: Not-so-secretly an Ipod shuffle. Actually, a Pandora(-ca) shuffle. Corresponding songs at the bottom._

* * *

1.

It was one scene after another, in rapid succession, a phantasmagoria of time-space twisting romantical wonder, and here it ended in a rather unspectacular landscape. It could be nondescript, even, but there was the Doctor, and the grass was red, and Amy's hair was flaming along with it in the afternoon sun. It was warming (the sun? No, her smile),... and the Doctor felt a lightness as his eyes fell over her sun-glowed form.

"I rather like this one." and she audaciously took his hand in hers.

"I'd hoped you would," the corner of his mouth turning up. He didn't remove his hand, but caressed hers with his thumb.

2.

She was swinging under the control panel again. It most definitely was not a swing, as he'd enumerated many times before, but she did it anyway. It was a relief, almost, because of her child-like enjoyment of it, and he liked basking in her youth. He had noticed too many moments where that dark confusion would pass through her eyes, or unexplained tears wetted her cheeks, and he had marked almost imperceptibly how much she had grown up and away from childishness and mad things like himself, though a few months had hardly passed in his presence. She was growing out of him, he worried, or away from him, frustratingly human. Human, human, human. How he'd made her eternal in his heart, willing her with every apologetic gift to stay forever in his time-locked dreams. She creaked on her make-shift swing, and he felt a lightness in his pocket.

3.

She new immediately, the night after she had taken out her old drawings and dolls and cardboard TARDIS, the moment her ambivalent mind registered the otherworldly sound. It was a valiant rescue, a triumphant return, a welcome release. Here she was, on the edge of a black precipice, and the bow tie and come back for her... the raggedy had returned to take her away. And as much as she wanted to feign anger as she padded barefoot through the garden, her elation betrayed her heart. His crooked smile took her soul with it, and he took her into the mad man's box, safe from the dread waiting in her bedroom behind her and the thousands of questions in her heart. Saved, saved. By the Doctor, the fantasy who left her waiting in the garden. Twelve years, and her hero had finally opened his door for her.

"Can you have me back by morning?" But tomorrow is a long time away.

4.

"I tell you what to do, and you do it!" But that wasn't how it worked. It always was before, and then there was Amy. It was the difference between being a companion and being something else. She was positively maddening, and immovable in her stubbornness. He couldn't say a thing to knock her down, without her shoving back, mini-skirt red-head Scottish fury, a Time-Lord's match if one ever existed. No, history couldn't handle this one, but he was taking her anyway. Even if traveling with him was the equivalent of spiraling through space with nothing but her hand in his preventing her from falling into the void of her heart. But he would never know that.

5.

Halfway through the universe (if there even IS a halfway) they had ended up herded by a superstitious civilization into the realm of corporal punishment, and found themselves shortly thereafter tied to posts in something like the town square. It was one thing after another, and midnight had rolled around before the Doctor had shimmied his hand out to get his sonic screwdriver before promptly dropping it beyond his reach. After sharing a moment of wide-eyed, dumb-founded silence, the two fell into fits of giggles, the impending drums doing little to instill dread into a brief moment of delirious humor.

6.

Six hours counting. She could resist, she had to. She had already done so much as to change into her nightgown, so she wasn't really expecting anything at all. Her reflection in the bathroom mirror was still wearing make-up, and her watch was still on, and her shoes sitting by the door. The window may have been open; she felt the breeze flutter across her skin and give her goosebumps.

It wouldn't hurt to leave the make-up. She was too tired to take it off. She still wasn't expecting anything. Soft footsteps padded to her bed, and then back, and then to the window, and then in circles. She wasn't tired, really. She could stay up a little longer.

Soon the fridge light washed over the kitchen, and there she was, ridiculous, hating it, (or not), making custard in the middle of the night. Because she was actually hungry for it (really).

And lying in bed, she stared at the wall, and waited, and couldn't sleep.

7.

It was one of those days in the TARDIS that might have slipped into a jumble with other forgotten memories in the wake of foreign worlds and nebulas and life-or-death. It was a Floating Day, a day between the worlds where the traveling took place, with nothing but a mysterious darkness outside the blue doors, dangerously close but not dangerous enough to get the blood racing. Amy wandered until the Doctor decided to show her places, eventually leading with little surprise to the library. The one with the swimming pool. She smirked at the memory.

They had done plenty of silly splashing and chasing and jumping in the pool by the books before she hung breathless on the edge with the Doctor's laughter slowly dying behind here. He silently tread water, and with little warning or silly tension before hand, had simply taken her to himself and kissed her.

8.

I am with him because he's lonely. The Doctor chooses me because he needs to be not-alone, because no matter how disappointing people can be, no one likes to be alone. But it's a gift that goes both ways, and he knows he owes me one, so many years spent wondering (but really knowing the truth). And then here we are, alone in the dark again, frustratingly platonic and cold and not understanding one another. But the Doctor pauses and closes his eyes, takes a breath and makes a resolution.

"Do you remember" why I chose you. I remember when, and I remember the relief, and I have already decided why.

"Because of your house" and... the emptiness. There were too many empty rooms.

Vast and dark and empty, with nothing but the lonely heart to echo the darkness back to you.

Vast and dark and empty, like the TARDIS.

We are a pair.

* * *

1. Stand Inside Your Love – Smashing Pumpkins

2. Immortality – Pearl Jam

3. Foo Fighters - Hero

4. Mystery Girl – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

5. Loser – Beck

6. Galapogos – Smashing Pumpkins

7. Lebanese Blonde – Thievery Corporation

8. The Last – Little Dragon


End file.
